This was a very intriguing film to watch. I love Phillip K. Dick stories and I fell in love with the cell-shaded actor’s not from seeing director Richard Linklater’s previous exploit, but from the trailer. The reason it was so intriguing was because I was kind of tired and didn’t really know what to expect and I kept getting vague about which characters were who and to top it all off it’s a movie about drug addiction, so that doesn’t help at all. Now I’m choosing not to comment on the plot/story until I read Dick’s original story because this was very obviously a story that was close to his heart because the very end of the movie (aside from not resolving the main storyline in my opinion) is either the author’s foreword or epilogue where Dick lists his close friends who are now paralyzed or dead because of drug addiction. The movie has some funny (in my opinion) moments, but the overall movie is more dramatic and very well done.

The movie takes place in Anaheim 7 years from now, which was kind of trippy for me…not because it was weird to see places I recognized (the painted tiles on the 5 freeway through Santa Ana and the Santa Ana water tower), but because I was seeing them through a cell-shaded lens which just made the recognition all the more poignant…I can’t explain it, can someone else?

Another thing I felt in this movie (this only applies to me personally and happened in a very minor moment), which I felt in Clerks 2 as well is how not grown up I am. Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves), (Robert Downey Jr.) and Ernie Lugman (Woody Harrelson) have their car break down on the freeway and they pop open the hood and are able to figure out what was wrong. How the hell do you learn that?

The movie is listed as being 1 hour and 40 minutes, but my 3:50 pm start time got out at 4:35 pm…that’s only an hour and 35 minutes if you throw in at least 10 minutes for trailers and commercials. Another confusing aspect of this movie.